“I Have Never Seen Star Wars”: Radio 4 Listening

In my last post, I decided to create a lesson plan on an authentic news clip from Radio 2. It has worked remarkably well and in light of this, I have now decided to create another listening lesson but based on the Radio 4 show “I Have Never Seen Star Wars”. The main focus of the radio show is to get participants to do things that they have never done before such as wallpapering, cooking a meal or doing the ironing. It is a really engaging and comical show which is available on their website and I would recommend anyone to have a listen. The presenter is Marcus Brigstocke and he really does get listeners engaged in the show. Anyhow, back to the lesson plan.

Aim: By the end of the lesson, students will listen to someone talk about a life experience that they have never done. They will also listen to an authentic radio program.

1. Draw up a picture of a car on the whiteboard and ask students whether they can name any parts of a car. Label any parts that they can name and include the following:

Mirrors

Brake

Seat belt

Engine

Clutch

Accelerator

Indicator

Gear lever

Seat belt

Hand brake

Neutral

2. Ask students if they know any verbs or phrasal verbs related to driving a car. Write down any language that they mention but also pre-teach the following vocabulary as well:

To pull away

To pull in

Brake

To signal/indicate

Mounting the curb

To give it some gas

Other vocabulary that would be good to pre-teach would include:

Curb (n)

Pavement (n)

Blind spot (n)

Death traps (n)

My heart was pounding (expr.)

Nice and steady (expr.)

No harm done (expr.)

3. Speak to students and tell them an experience that you have never done: rode a motorbike, done bungee jumping, etc. Ask the students to see if they have not done anything during their life up to now. As language emerges, make a note of this on the board and provide feedback at the end of the conversation. Ask any students if they have or will take driving lessons in the future: Have you taken a driving lesson before? Will you take a driving lesson in the future? What was it like? What do you think it will be like?

4. Tell students that they are going to listen to a story about someone but show the pictures up on the board and elicit from them what they think the story is about. Board up elicited stories on the whiteboard and help out with some vocabulary. Pictures include the following:

Car crash

Robin Reliant

Driving Lesson

Dukes of Hazard

The story is that a person never took a driving lesson as his grandfather was involved in an accident with his Robin Reliant, which he also experienced. He describes the accident like a scene out of “Dukes of Hazzard”.

5. Tell students that they are going to listen to someone talk about their experiences of their grandfather driving his Reliant Robin and have a driving lesson. Whilst they listen, ask students to choose whether the following sentences from the listening are true or false.

You have to be 18 when you learn to drive. (False – you have to be 17)

His granddad crashed his Robin Reliant by hitting the side of the road. (True)

The person had his driving lesson on an airfield. (False – he thought it would be on an airfield, it was actually in London)

He doesn’t know where his blindspot is located. (True)

During his driving lesson he got into second gear. (True)

His instructor’s name is called Jason. (False – he is called John)

He marked himself 8 out of 10 for his first ever driving lesson. (False – he marked himself 9 out of ten)

Get students to compare in small groups before eliciting the answers from the students.

6. The next part of the listening is to get students to put the following excerpts into order that they are mentioned. Play the recording a couple of times and get the learners to work individually before checking their answers in pairs or small groups. Here are the following excerpts in order:

“You told me, and I was surprised actually, you told me you’d never driven a car or had a driving lesson”

“We hit the side of the road, in the Robin Reliant, and it literally – Dukes of Hazzard – went upside down rolling”

“I now feel really bad sending you on a driving lesson.”

“You thought you’d be taken off to a special track?”

“Umm … is it accelerator, brake and that’s for this, the clutch”

“When you go to pull away, where is your blindspot?”

“Now check your mirrors and gently, nice and gently, away we go.”

“Have a go at pulling away, getting in to second gear, pulling in.”

“Nice and steady now. Wait until we get round a bend before we hit second gear.”

“On your first lesson, you got up to second gear.”

“Not all of it on a London street, some of it on a London pavement!”

“I thought I would be more panicked than I was.”

“Do you think you’ll do it again?”

“Excellent! Sounds like you are both back safely.”

As an extra to getting students to re-order the text, you could get students to listen to the audio again and decide who said what. For example, “You told me, and I was …” was mentioned by the Presenter, Marcus Brigstocke, so students could put (P) next to the quote, (DI) for the Driving Instructor, and (I) for Interviewee, Reece Shearsmith.

As a final activity, and practice, get students to speak to each other using the Present Perfect and Past Simple form. Use the board game, available in the download, to prompt students to talk to each other. Monitor the speaking practice and provide feedback and scaffold language, where necessary, at the end of the lesson.

Well that is all from the lesson plan but all necessary material is available as a download and the audio is accessible from SoundCloud below. Again, I hope this lesson is useful in getting more authentic listening inside the classroom and getting your learners used to a natural speed of spoken English. Have you adapted any authentic listening for the classroom? Do you think it empowers students to listen to more natural English or do you think that any adaptation of authentic listening reduces its authenticity?